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Most would probably say that Doctor Doom is the best villainous doctor in comics. I’d go one step further and say that he’s the best VILLAIN in comics. Sure, you’ve got your Magnetos and your Galactuses… Galacti? But Magneto can’t make up his mind about what side he’s on, plus he’s kind of got a point about humans. And Galactus? That guy’s not even doing anything wrong, he’s a force of nature in a dumb hat.

Like this:

Celebrating the release of Secret Wars #3 today I thought we’d feature the cover. All 8 issues of the series have their main covers done by Alex Ross with (surprise, surprise) tons of other variants from different artists. The story itself in the first two issues has proved to be very interesting, presenting a Marvel universe mash up of insane proportions.

This cover though brings that mash up front and center. We have our heroes on the left and the evil cabal on the right with both the regular universe’s Reed Richards as well as the Ultimate universe Reed (now known as The Maker) front and center. A mirrored version of each other, no doubt paying tribute to how important both versions of this character will play during this event.

Will the rest of the series live up to the hype? It’s impossible to say, so let’s just take a minute to admire the cover instead.

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Today’s beard spotlight is not on one particular beard, but rather a subspecies of beard. I call it Beardicus Futuristica; The future beard. This is the phenomenon in fiction, particularly science fiction, of showing that a great deal of time has passed by giving a character a beard. It is especially popular in comic books and comic books are especially popular with me, but here are some of my favorites from all kinds of media.

THE MAESTRO

A Hulk gone mad in an alternate future, he has crushed every other major force in the Marvel Universe friend and foe alike.

SUPERMAN (KINGDOM COME)

A retired version of the Man of Steel, he has gone back to his roots as a farmer. He tends to the crops more often than he does his face.

REED RICHARDS (EARTH X)

After his wife and nemesis are killed in the same devastating battle, Reed dons Dooms armor and grows a shaggy beard.

FRANKLIN RICHARDS

After he matures into a living god, he goes back in time and acts as a mentor to his younger self, which is just BEGGING for a rift in the space-time continuum.

BATMAN (THE DARK KNIGHT RISES)

Because the fifteen speeches about “Harvey Dent Day” might not have made it clear, they had Christian Bale grow a red goatee so we’d know this movie took place later.

FUTURE BILL AND TED

Bill and Ted grew glorious beards as they learned to play their instruments. After their training , their musical skills were station.

When we saw a future version of Cable, who was already an old man, they added a white beard so you’d know he was old in the FUTURE.

The future beard is such a common bit of costume design that, as a child, I imagined my adult self as basically a taller version of my child self with a golden beard. I honestly did not see the male pattern baldness coming.

See you in the FUTURE as we continue this Novembeard celebration tomorrow!

All images and characters depicted are copyright of their respective owners.